UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 14, 2024

Kevin Wilson

Press Conference

Oklahoma State 45, Tulsa 10

KEVIN WILSON: Everybody ready? Good? Good to go? All right, man. Score for sure lop-sided. Gave up some plays. I appreciate the effort, the fight. Our guys played really, really hard, give us some easy plays in pass defense, and, again, they got a really good team, and especially their receivers a big, they're stout, they're strong. Presley is a heck of a good player and quarterback, played a long time, played well, so gave up too many pass plays. Offensively some good things. Ran it okay. I thought we were going to have a hard time maybe hanging on with the size differential on pass, pro, but we did okay. The first quarter, I don't think we had one passing yard in the first quarter, and I think we gave up two big plays, man-to-man coverage where you get beat six, seven, eight yards down field, so you got to learn how to do that better. Played a lot of young guys today, which is great. It's a great environment. I know they had a lot of fans, but I thought our fans came out. It's a great environment, great day for the school. Would like to have a better result. I like our fight. Like the toughness we showed. Came out of the game healthy.

Again, hats off to Mike and his staff and his team. That's a good football team. We think we're building moving that direction. We'll keep going. Coming off a tough road loss last week, we have similar ventures here the next couple of weeks as we go back on the road, we'll see if we can keep gaining, playing better and give ourselves a chance for victory as we have a tough test next week going to LA Tech. So, questions?

Q. On the positive, obviously, didn't get a lot of yards. You were holding him pretty good.

KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, it wasn't like -- and no -- he's awfully good and they do a really good scheme with the tight ends, the way they move people around, multiple shift formations, getting the ball in the perimeter with RPOs and bubbles and the run action off the pass action, etc. The plan wasn't to stop Ollie. The plan is always to stop the run, and, of course, I thought -- I really felt -- because this year statistically hasn't really done much. They would come in, but, you know, they saw what we're doing. They saw we're one-on-one, whether it be loose coverage and they're banging hits just for six and eight and ten yards or tight coverage and they're running by us, so, you know, Alan Bowman played a heck of a game. They put him in some good positions, so it's nice we played well not just against Ollie. It's nice we did the best we could to stop the run. That's always a key, but we cannot give up the simple, big plays that we did moving forward, especially against a tremendous team like Oklahoma State has.

Q. And you talked all year about the young receivers and they were getting playing time, obviously wasn't against first teamers but they did start to get some catches.

KEVIN WILSON: Oh, they were early, though. Joe Williams had a couple didn't come down with. We had Corey Smith went reverse in there early, so we were playing young -- now, defensively, they got a lot of guys. I was excited to get Elijah green out there. I kept saying, hey, your gold guys are getting beat, play the puppy, play the young guys. We got DeDaunte Scott got his first action. Jackson Ford at tight end. Got a little bit more going for Viron Ellis in this game. He made a few plays for us. He's a good player. At the same time, you got Billy Jack and Anthony Watkins. You got older guys, so, you know, you got to try to keep some guys happy. It's not a lot of plays, but it was last week we had too many old guys play too many snaps and I did not want to go into this game and have Kam Benjamin playing play like he did last week. We had to play the young guys. I didn't want Myles Jackson playing, so, I appreciate the young guys getting out there. I bet we probably, there was probably 18 true offensive line tight ends, probably 18, 19 true freshman played. That's good for them and that's good for us. And a got opportunity for these guys to be on that field against that opponent in that environment. In TV, that's a big growing step for those guys, they needed that today.

Q. (Inaudible) your passing game.

KEVIN WILSON: Initially just some of the man stuff, just getting open, challenge coverages, challenge plays and Kam finally made a few in the second quarter, we didn't finish it with my points. Had to maybe get to some crossing routes. A couple we hit, a couple we didn't. We're throwing off the back foot on one crossing route that's open, it's a little bit late. They actually had the same play last week. Arkansas had the same play last week and the quarterback's off the back foot, can't get it, the guy goes pick six. They about pulled it off again. So I just, their rush, I thought coming in was pretty strong, pretty stout and that was the first sack we gave up today but I thought our protection needed to be better, but they just basically did a good mix of their zone, man, and when they played man, we just had a hard time separating early.

Q. You talked able when you first walked in about challenging plays the next two weeks. What was your message to these guys about trying to get beyond this game to focus on the two you have coming up?

KEVIN WILSON: Well, again, like first of all, I told them they need to be thankful that in our world we got a chance to play that game today in front of that environment because that don't happen... that crowd. Out there on that field on national TV and it's a prime time spot and maybe you busted that coverage or missed that tackle or missed that block or made a bad pass or maybe, whatever you did you did but to be as hard as you work, today, as hard as these kids have worked whether it be from the little league, the youth leagues to whatever they've done since they've been here, to not go out there and not have some fun. Now, we got to play better not giving up some big plays and make the contest, because the ultimate fun is winning the dadgum game, but I just thought they battled, thought they battled hard, didn't think there was any quitting. I didn't see any finger-pointing. I didn't see negativity. I just saw us give up some plays or not finish some drives against a really good team and the numbers got a little bit skewed. At the end, I wasn't going to kick a field goal until it was fourth and 15. I wasn't trying to prevent a shutout. We had to get better. I was trying to do things to get us better and it was fourth and 15, well, we missed a dadgum field goal, let's see if we can make the next one. That's an opportunity to get better. It wasn't a, quote, save a shutout. So, again, they played well, but my message was there's a lot of good in too many areas day after day. We're not getting the winning result against a really good team today, but if we stay with it, it's going to be there. We're not going to wonder around and feel sorry for ourselves. We can, but feeling sorry, pointing fingers, being negative is not going to -- we got to correct some things. We got to keep being coachable. We got to keep doing a better job coaching, but everything we want is in front of us and we're going to play some games where there's going to be some really good match-up opportunities and if we want results, we got to keep getting better, so that's all we talked about. Didn't try to justify score, had no means of pointing fingers at anyone. Just thankful we had the opportunity, need to play better. Let's learn and grow and keep going.

Q. And you didn't see your guys getting down like a field goal early maybe kind of could have changed things a little bit --

KEVIN WILSON: Again, that sideline is tight. We dress a lot of guys to create positive energy for those families, so. It might be -- I didn't really see Seth after the kick. Maybe he was down because he missed a kick. Okay. He pulled it a smidge. One of the reasons I went to it again was wasn't to save a shutout. If it was fourth and six, we were going to run a play. It was fourth and 15, yeah, just throw a foul ball here. Let's see if our kicker can make it, see if we can protect better. We have had issues in protection. Everything we were doing, when the game got to 35, 38 was, I saw no sense to keep playing Kirk and take a risk of a hit, so let's get the other guys some action and then other than that, let's get the young guys, keep them going. We came out of the game healthy, and like I said, I don't like it but I'm encouraged with our group and I'm grateful for this opportunity but for what we want, we're going to keep working. We're going to stay positive. We're going to stay together.

Q. Did you talk to Stephen Kittleman after the game... a nice moment.

KEVIN WILSON: It was good. Especially since his home boys didn't do well last night, so at least he can be the -- because those people down there love Stephen, I can tell you that now. He comes off the field and he winks at you and he's a guy that -- because you guys know because he's what? Two-time state champion. Two or three, right? Two time, right? He win two or three? Two? Right? And he's got as much confidence without arrogance as anyone. He's the leader of our sack. He was the president of FCA, so, I mean, he's a special, special kid and sometimes his skill set in the throwing game, you know, you saw the little duck he threw behind and we caught it, right? He doesn't have the hugest arm, but I gave him a scholarship because there might not be a better kid on this campus than that kid, and he brings it every day and so at the end, Corey said, hey, you want to go up with one of the guys or let's throw Kitty in? Hey, let Stephen get his shot? Especially because it's Oklahoma State, hometown, it was good for him and I wasn't surprised. That doesn't mean he's in the quarterback battle right now but that was a good moment for Stephen.

Q. What do you have to do going forward to get more people involved in your passing game other than, again, Kam --

KEVIN WILSON: They got to get open.

Q. Kam Benjamin is a super star. How do you get other guys to rise up?

KEVIN WILSON: We got to get open, but sometimes -- I had a really great coach tell me a long time ago sometimes some guys need to be number one or number two in the progression. So, like, sometimes they're not always going to him but if he's four or five in progression, some guys command the ball and we don't design plays specifically for him, but the more he's the first or second guy in the read, mathematically, like the one jailbreak screen in there, there's nothing there and he slid through and got eight or ten yards. He's competitive. He's an alum, he's a grad school alum, he's another neat kid, so, but we're not trying to force feed him. Those young puppies got to keep coming along. It hurt when Jeremiah got hurt. Zion today didn't really get going, so we got to get the tight ends back and get these guys going, too.

Q. You mentioned the wide receivers winning some one on ones. Were they a little bit better in that --

KEVIN WILSON: Oh, for sure. And talking to some folks this week, a lot of people said maybe the [Indiscernible] other team. You got to fetch a quarterback, you got to fetch an O-line, you got a premier running back you know. You got a lot of guys -- a guy on defense, lost a really good defensive player, but linebacker playing as good as anybody in the country, but maybe the best group on the team is the receivers and you got two big -- and our twos are pretty good, too, now. So they can play some depth with you but they're big outside and then Presley's just got nice knack and feel and they were trying to trying to get him a hometown touch or two, which you can tell that. I appreciate that. So a lot of respect for him and his family. A lot of respect for their team. Mike's one of the best coaches in the country and they got a heck of a good team, so we tip our hat. They played well. They played really well. We played hard. We got a lot better we can do, but we'll keep doing it and I'm excited about this team. Appreciate it. Y'all have a great weekend.